The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Past Rears Its Ugly Headhouses

Some great photos came my way via local resident Kendall Christiansen, who led the effort to make Maple Street School happen at the Prospect Park Q/B/S more than 15 years ago. Check these out. I trust you all know the two stations in question, shot mid-1990s. And yes, for those of you to new to remember, the Q was the D back then, and bizarrely, today's B was the Q, which I used to always associate with "Quick" for express. The brilliance that is NYCTA! And yes (too perfect for words), the name of that presumably Korean owned deli is "Seoul."

Ah yes, I remember how that station used to look. Way back in my high school days I traveled here all the way from the Bronx as part of the Urban Park Rangers program. Once my mom came with me and the Parkside station scared her so much she withdrew me from the program. That station has come a looooong way!

I remember when I was little I took the D to Manhattan with my mom. PLG was much, much different back then. Once I remember in one of my innocent days of my childhood talking to my grandmother, and then I was said, "Granny, a bullet hit our window and it looks like a spider web now!" haha. In reality, a bullet hit our window and cracked it. PLG, like the majority of NYC back then, was pretty much a hellhole. PLG and the iconic Parkside have come a long way, gentrification or not. I love my experience here, and I love PLG.

I also remember 9/11 vividly. I was a 3rd grader at P.S. 249. I was at the school's library reading a book when I heard a loud booming sound and the windows shook. Phones rang simultaneously and my teacher started sobbing almost immediately. I asked, "Why are you crying, Ms. Leafy?" and that was that. I was too young to comprehend.

Rushing to our Parkside apartment, I saw two "sticks" on fire, which were the twin towers.

Oh... My nostalgic days living in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Just a little life story I felt like sharing. I wonder if I'll ever come back after leaving for college...